"What do you want with me? Please let me go! I want to go back!" Christine cried. Then she rushed foward and tried to take off Erik's mask. But Erik blocked her arm, and lightly pushed Christine back. "Please, I just want to go back."
"Why aren't you dressed at this hour? It is nearly two o'clock. Here give me your watch." Erik said and held out his hand. Christine handed him her watch, and Erik wound and set it for her. "Now, I will give you a half hour to get ready. There is a lovely lunch waiting in the dining room." Then Erik left the room, but still kept the door open. Christine went to the bathroom and dressed. She came out a few minutes later feeling greatly refreshed. She wandered into the dining room where Erik was waiting for her. She sat down at the table and began to eat.
"So, you are from Scandonavia? That is the origin of your name isn't it?" Christine asked pleasntly.
"I have no country, or a name. I came upon this name quite by accident." Erik replied. The rest of the meal was spent in silence. When Erik and Christine both finished, Erik rose. "Come, I will show you around the flat." Erik put the tips of his fingers on Christine's hand. She gasped and drew back her hand from his cold fingers. "Oh, please forgive me." Erik murmured. Then he opened the door to another room. It was the strangest room Christine had ever seen. It was all black and had an enormous stave of music. And there under neath a large canopy, was a coffin. "That is where I sleep. I believe that man must be one with all things. Even death."
Christine galnced away, and as she did she caught sight of a keyboard. Along one wallwas an organ. And on the organ was a score of music. Christine who was curious asked if she could see it. Erik nodded. Christine went over and read the title, "Don Juan Triumphant." Erik nodded again.
"It is my life's work. When I finish with it I shall lie in this coffin, and be burried with it." Erik explained.
"Then I hope that you do not finish it soon." Christine said.
"Sometimes I work on it for fourteen days straight, during which I live on music alone. Then I rest for years at a time."
"Will you play some of it for me?"
"No, child. You are far from ready for that kind of music, all the pretty color would drain from your cheeks. Come let us sing something from the opera." And Erik led Christine to the Louis-Philippe room where there was a piano. And he began to play a peice from Othello. Christine's voice was soft and timid, while Erik's was loud and thonderous. In his mask, Christine thought he looked like Othello himself. And curiousity over took her. She had to see who it was behind the mask. She came up slowly, and in a quick movement, she tore off the mask that hid Erik's face.
Christine dropped the mask, and backed into a wall. Erik cried out in greif and rage. He came up to Christine and murmered incomprehensible curses at her as she sank to her knees. Then leaning over her he cried, "Look, you want to see! Look, now you know the face of the voice! You were not content to hear me eh? You wanted to know what I looked like? Oh, you children are so inquistive. When a woman has seen me as you have, she belongs to me. She loves me forever! I am a kind of Don Juan you know!" And drawing himself up to his full height, placing his hand on his hip, Erik shouted, "Look I am Don Juan Triumphant!"
Chrstine turned her head away. "Please Erik, I'm sorry. Please forgive me!" Christine cried.
Then Erik twisted his fingers into Christine's long hair and brutally froced her to look at him. "Ah, I frighten you do I? I dare say. Perhaps you think I have another mask, and what you see before you, my head is a mask? Well, tear it off as you did the other! Come, I insist! Your hands, your hands! Give me your hands!" Then letting go of Christine's hair, Erik seized Christine's wrists and forced her to stand before him. Then he dug Christine's nails into his face, he tore his dead skin with Christine's nails.
"Please Erik, stop! Please, I'm so, so sorry!" Chrstine cried as tears ran down her face.
"Know!" Erik shouted, "Know that I am built up of death from head to foot, and that it is a corpse that loves you, and adores you, and will never, never leave you! Look Christine I am not laughing anymore, I am crying. Crying for you who have torn off my mask, and who therefore can never leave me again." He had finally let go of Christine's wrists, and Christine hugged Erik around the waist and burried her face in his chest. And Erik put his arms around her, and comforted her. "As long as you thought me handsome you could have come back, I know you would have come back. But now that you know my hideousness, you would run away forever. So I have no choice but to keep you here. Why did you want to see me? Oh mad Christine who wanted to see me. When even my own father never saw me, and when my mother gave me a mask so as not to see me." Erik let go of Christine, and gently pushed her away from him. Then he sulked off to his room and closed the door. Christine stood by herself. Then she heard music from Erik's room. At first it was like one great cry. Then Christine began to hear all the emotions man can possibly have. She walked slowly foward and opened Erik's door. Erik did't turn.
"Erik, I'm sorry. But do not be afraid to show me your face. I swear you are you most unhappy and delightful of men; and if I shudder ever again when I look at you, it will be because I will be in awe of your genius!" At those words Erik did turn around. He went to Christine and held her close and kissed the top of her head, but he did not see that Christine had closed her eyes. And still holding her, he spoke words of love. Yes he loved her as if he were her father. He had cared for her for many months, and he had come to think of her as his own. But he knew that he couldn't let her go yet. No, he still didn't know if she would come back, or if she would run away.
Christine told Erik, terrible lies. She felt a pang of guilt for each lie. Erik did not deserve to be lied to, but she knew she must if she wanted to return to the surface. So, she told him lies. Erik believed all of them, he drank them up like water.
The next day, Erik took Christine for a boat ride on the lake. This is when Christine knew for certain that Erik believed all her lies. So, that meant that she must still lie. It was her life at stake. The day after that Erik took Christine for a carrige ride in the Bois. Christine enjoyed the fresh air, and knew that soon, she would be free. Erik took her out the next night as well. But raoul made a grave mistake, hoping to see Christine.
Christine looked out the carrige window, and caught a glimpse of Raoul. Unfortunatly, he saw her as well. Raoul de Chagney could not help but cry out to Christine.
"Christine, Christine!" As the carrige drove away Raoul saw an arm reach over Christine and close the window. Raoul knew right then that he had made a grave mistake in coming there that night. Just before the window closed, Raoul saw the terror in Christine's eyes.
"Why was he here? What has he to do with you?" Demanded Erik as the carrige drove on.
"I have known him since I was a young girl, he once fetched my scarf when it blew into the sea." Christine explained.
"You love him more than you love me, don't you?"
"No!"
"I know that it is true! This, is another reason for me to keep you with me."
"No, I promise to come back if you set me free. I have promised you many times. He is like my brother, that is all!"
"If he is like your brother, why do you always ignore him when you pass him? I see all that happens in the opera house Christine. You have no secrets that I already do not know."
Christine sat silent, staring into Erik's eyes. And they returned to the house on the lake.